How to Slow Down Metabolism to Gain Weight

For a lot of people, weight gain can be just as difficult as weight loss. While a fast metabolism is often seen as a good thing, it can make increasing healthy body mass hard. If you burn calories too quickly, your body may not store enough of that energy in fat or muscle. Learning how to naturally slow down your metabolism can help you gain weight safely and healthily.

What Is Metabolism?

Metabolism represents all chemical processes in the body to convert food into energy. This includes the breakdown of nutrients, heat generation, and essential functions like breathing and blood circulation. As a measure of metabolism speed, basal metabolic rate (BMR), shows the number of calories that the body burns in its period of rest, and is a measure of the speed of metabolism. Genetics, age, gender, composition, and activity level all define an individual's BMR.

How Does Metabolism Contribute to Weight Gain?

Metabolism explains how well your body turns energy into energy.  

• For example, with a fast metabolism, we burn calories more quickly, which makes it more challenging to gain weight.   
• A slow metabolism burns calories more slowly, making it easier to store excess energy as fat or muscle.  

If your goal is to gain weight, you may want to promote a slower metabolism while continuing to provide your body with sufficient nutrition so that you can gain weight—the right way, not just fat. 

Why Is Slowing Down Metabolism Important?

A high metabolic rate can present challenges in your weight journey, regardless of how much you eat. Rather than burning energy quickly, it can be helpful to have a slightly slower metabolic rate to allow energy to be used more efficiently by the body and stored for growth and repair. ​This can be especially helpful for those with a naturally high basal metabolic rate ​(BMR), or for those with metabolism-related difficulties to either maintain weight or gain weight when consuming nutrient-dense foods.

For someone who eats enough but struggles to gain weight, slow would be beneficial: 

• To retain more calories in the body, which allows for more available energy storage.  
• To promote muscle growth because the body now has more nutrients available.  
• Allow for hormonal balance with regard to hunger, energy, and fat storage.  

However, slowing down metabolism should be performed safely. Slowing metabolism too much can be damaging to someone's health and energy levels overall.

7 Ways to Slow Down Your Metabolism

While you cannot fully "control" your metabolic rate, you can modify it by following certain appropriate dietary and lifestyle recommendations. Most of these presentations do not need to be done in an extreme fashion, but rather as small, simple routines having the goal of encouraging a gradual and steady decrease of calorie expenditure. Below are seven safe and nonspecific suggestions relating to promoting a gradual and steady change in metabolism.

1. Eat More, but Make Each Meal Larger: Eating more often will increase daily calorie intake. However, it does help to try not to consume an excessive amount of protein, since eating protein can increase metabolism slightly. Rather, eat healthy, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats, and enjoy an appropriately larger meal more often.
2. Get Enough Sleep: Lack of sleep is known to elevate metabolic rates and hormones that directly affect metabolism and energy expenditure.  Aim to get approximately 7–9 hours of quality sleep every night, to help support both metabolic hormones and a balanced perspective on your metabolic goal.
3. Decrease High-Intensity Exercise: High-intensity exercise increases metabolism. Trade off some workout time for easy walks, yoga, and stretches.
4. Increase Healthy Fat Consumption: Fats digest longer, and this reduces metabolism. Nut milk, avocado, nuts, organic full-fat dairy, or olive oil should go in your diet.
5. Keep Warm: A Cold atmosphere will trigger your body to burn more calories to heat up. Staying warm will avoid burning these extra calories.
6. Don’t Over-Caffeinate: Caffeine stimulates the CNS and speeds up your metabolism temporarily. More caffeine means less metabolism and prepare for coffee and energy drinks or caffeine-spiked teas.
7. Do Your Best to Reduce Stress Levels: Chronic stress increases cortisol, which can lead to metabolic and appetite disruptions. What helps? Meditation, journaling, or gentle breathing practices.

Impact of Lifestyle Factors on Metabolism

Lifestyle habits will play a huge role in how fast (or slow) your metabolism runs.

• Nutrition: High-protein diets tend to speed metabolism, while diets that are higher in carbs and fats will slow it down a little.
• Activity Level: People who are sedentary will naturally burn fewer calories throughout the day.
• Age and Hormones: Typically, as we age, or suffer from some sort of hormonal change (thyroid function changes or variations), there is a natural reductive to metabolism that occurs.

A well-rounded lifestyle ensures that if you do make any lifestyle changes, they are healthy and sustainable.

When to See a Doctor

If you have tried to gain weight with dietary or lifestyle changes and are still unable to gain weight, it is important that you talk to a medical provider. You could be suffering from an undiscovered condition such as hyperthyroidism, malabsorption, or a metabolic disorder. A physician or dietitian can help you create a personalized nutritional support and medical treatment plan in order to gain a healthy weight.

Conclusion

Slowing down our metabolism is not making our bodies unhealthy or unable to metabolize our food; it is about finding balance. If you have always been someone who struggled to gain weight, simply because you had a naturally fast metabolism, making mindful adjustments to your diet, exercise, and lifestyle habits can help. At the end of the day, focus on feeding your body (food choice and amount), consistency, and when all above fail, seek professional help.

FAQs

1. Can you permanently slow down your metabolism?

Not really. You can influence your metabolism with consistency in your eating and lifestyle habits.

2. Is slowing down metabolism unhealthy? 

If you slow it down too much, yes. The objective is to slow it down somewhat to help with weight gain, not to suppress it altogether.

3. Will skipping meals slow my metabolism?

Skipping meals may slow your metabolism, but it can also create nutrition deficiencies and fatigue. Alternate the meals and eat regularly with more calorie-dense foods.

4. Are there any foods that help slow down metabolism?

Yes, full-fat dairy, nuts, oils, starchy foods, and healthy carbohydrate foods will slow the burning of calories down a bit. 

5. How long will it take to see any signs that I have gained weight? 

After consistent effort, signs of weight gain can take 4-8 weeks, depending on your metabolism and the amount of calories you are consuming.